Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Sarah patted Everleigh on the shoulder. They looked up and saw Pope struggling to climb the train. He shone his flashlight in their direction, finally giving their signal.

"That it, we're green." Kiara tells everyone as they all stand up.

They're all silenced when a train horn blares through the air. Then, gears could be hear moving.

"What happening?" Sarah asks, looking around at the group of trains.

"You hear that?" JJ speaks, examining just like the rest of the Pogues were. Then, the trains begin to move. "Trains moving. Trains moving."

They curse under their breath, watching as the train Pope and Cleo were on started to move away from them. Sarah and Kiara rushed to Topper, trying to get jumper cables.

JJ and Everleigh just look at each other before they both walk up to them as well. "Hey, I just wanna make sure everyone here is okay with ending up in federal prison." Topper was nervous as all hell. He wanted no part in whatever the Pogues were up to.

"Well, if it gets to that. Yeah, I'll do it for Pope." JJ smiles, taking the jumper cables from Sarah.

JJ climbs on his bike while Sarah, Kiara, and Topper climb into the truck. But, when Everleigh tries to get in, Sarah shuts the door and they drive away.

"You've got to be kidding me." She mumbles turning to look at JJ. But, he just looked at her and she awkwardly climbed on, hesitantly wrapping her arms around JJ's torso. She felt him immediately tense up, and he drove off, kicking dirt up behind them. Topper's truck was just behind them as they tried to catch up with the train.

JJ was going faster than he normally would if Everleigh was on the back of his bike, but he also knew well enough that it wasn't a safe idea in the first place. Then they drifted into a spot behind a bush. "This should be far enough." He says, getting of the bike before she could even move.

He runs and trips, falling flat on his face making Everleigh cringe. "Hey, are you alright?" She asks him, seriously worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He huffs. Giving her the shortest answer possible as they run towards the tracks. "Oh god you can hear it coming. Let's fry this sucker."

He lined the cable up, attaching it to the rails. "Okay, now, all you have to do... is change the current." She just watched as he panics and runs around to try and set his trick up. "Let's go baby." He gives himself a pep talk as he attaches another side.

"Don't get electrocuted." She tells him worriedly, knowing there was a good chance. "Please."

"Yeah, no promises with that." He tells her, trying not to focus on her or get distracted. He counts himself down as he clips on the final thing, they wait for the light to change. He starts to ramble once the light doesn't change. He became instantly stressed. "Okay, what if I blockaded the track? That's what I could do. Maybe put a tree?"

"Uh, JJ, the train touches both sides of the tracks." She tells him, leaning over and putting the clip on the other side. They both stop and watch the light, silently praying for it to turn red. "Come on, come on." She mumbles as JJ stands at her side. "We don't have a plan B, so please, just change." She talks to the light like it can hear her. And it worked, the light turned red.

"You're a genius. I was gonna do that." They turn towards each other with smiles and JJ goes to high five her, but Everleigh's smile fades. She lets her hands fall. "Ev, come on."

She shakes her head slightly still upset with him.

"Look, Ev I'm sorry. I know what you saw and if I could've controlled it better, I would have." He looks directly at her but her eyes stay directed towards the ground. "Please, just can we be okay again. I miss you and I hate when you're mad at me."

"We need to hide, JJ." Was all she could manage to tell him. They went behind the bush again, not speaking a word. The train starts to get closer but they hear the brakes start to screech.

They smile to themselves and watch the train which was at a complete stop. But the smiles eventually leave their faces when an officer shows up. JJ pulls Everleigh back as they watch the scene in front of them.

"That's not apart of the plan." Everleigh whispers.

The officer starts to yell and JJ and Everleigh try to make out what their saying. They can see more officers taking of the cable. But no commotion was started, giving them the hint that they were alright.

Then, the train starts to move again. "The trains starting."

"We gotta go get them." Everleigh suggests and they both take off to go back to the bike.

"There goes the plan. We gotta help them." JJ repeats after her, both taking long strides to the bike that they'd hid.

JJ climbs on his bike and something falls out of his pocket. She reaches down to grab it, "Hey, you dropped your..." She picks it up and sees a money clip with the initials MC written on it. She immediately recognized it from the many times Everleigh had been over Kiara's house. "Why do you have this?"

"Because if I'm gonna be accused of being a theif, I might as well get something out of it." He mumbles, obviously hiding something from his girlfriend.

"JJ, what are you talking about?" She still didn't know that he and Kiara stopped by her place. "If anyone is calling you that, you're just giving them ammunition." She reasons with him, looking into his eyes for an answer.

"Ammunition for what, Ev?" He asks. "They're already against me. So who cares?"

"JJ, who are you talking about?" She looks at him in pure confusion while he avoids giving any answers. "No one has any reasons, you're just giving them a reason."

"You know what? We don't have time for this. Get on." JJ tells her, starting to raise his voice even if he didn't want to.

"No." She quietly denies her. But she flinches when a truck goes speeding by them. "Is that... Topper?"

JJ turns her head and looks at her. "Look, Ev, I'll tell you everything later. Even if you're mad at me and hate my guts right now, I love you." He pauses and waits for a reaction, but she has none. "Now, get on the fucking bike, princess."

She could've thrown up right there. The explosion of butterflies made her heart skip a beat and she instantly climbed on the back of the bike. He revs the engine, and they take off.